Optical, Mechanical and Sensorial Properties of Strawberry Spreadable Products Formulated with Isomaltulose

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the optical and mechanical properties as well as the sensorial attributes (colour, spreadability, taste with and without bread, adhesiveness and the global preference) of 30 °Brix strawberry spreadable products. A total of 18 different spreadable products were obtained according to the type of sugar (isomaltulose or sucrose), the elaboration method (wet or dry osmotic dehydration with or without external liquid phase removal) and the percentage of pectin used for their formulation. The results showed that neither the pectin percentage nor the type of sugar had an influence on the colorimetric coordinates (L*, a* and b*). Nevertheless, dry osmotic dehydration with external liquid phase removal seemed to better preserve the characteristic fresh strawberry colour. Regarding texture, a lower liquid phase volume and higher fruit/solution ratios led to spreadable products with higher consistency and adhesiveness values [consistency values: 5.5 (0.4) vs. 2.9 (0.1) (1 % of pectin), 6.92 (0.08) vs. 4.3 (0.3) (1.5 % of pectin) and 10 (1) vs. 5.2 (0.3) (2 % of pectin); adhesiveness values: 0.82 (0.07) vs. 0.32 (0.04) (1 % of pectin), 1.21 (0.04) vs. 0.72 (0.08) (1.5 % of pectin) and 1.8 (0.3) vs. 1.00 (0.06) (2 % of pectin)]. Moreover, using sucrose with 2 % pectin instead of isomaltulose produced a similar effect. Concerning the sensorial evaluation of spreadable products formulated with isolmaltulose, the taste was the parameter which conditioned the global preference by panelists. Regarding spreadability, the products ranging from 4 to 5 N s for consistency and from 0.6 to 0.9 N s for adhesiveness were the most appreciated.